John Lennon ended the Beatles at the Polynesian

CommandoDisney

CommandoDisney

Member
Original Poster
So I was listening to the radio yesterday morning and they were talking to May Pang who was the assistant/friend of John Lennon. She just put out a book of photographs of their time together and one of the bigger shots is that of him signing the papers agreeing to the breakup of the Beatles. Apparently this happened at the Polynesian! Did anyone else know this? I'm not a Beatles fan, I just thought this was interesting and decided to share.
 
CommandoDisney

CommandoDisney

Member
Original Poster
Here is the article i was reading along with some pictures: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=513300&in_page_id=1879

it says the signing of the documents happened at the end of December in 1974. So the Beatles may have allready been broken up, but this was making it official? I dont know, like I said, I'm not a Beatles fan but I do appreciate them.

She actually refers to it as the Polynesian Village which was the original name before they changed it to Resort.
 
GothMickey

GothMickey

Active Member
marni1971 said:
Hmmmm..... strange, as Cosmo said. The `ever reliable` Orlando Sentinal says http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_music_blog/2008/03/may-pang-john-l.html yet the Poly wasn`t anywhere near usable in April 1970 - it was still very much a building site.

I think May Pang is a little confused.
Click to expand...

May be... but, the Orlando Sentinel doesn't say 1970, they say 1970's, so it could have been any time in the 70's. And if the band broke up in 1970, the legal paper work to divide the band assets, sell the music rights, etc.. could take years, which, would mean some time in the 70's... Also, the Poly opened in 1971 I believe, so give a year to her recollection... Seems possible to me...
 
urbanvegan

urbanvegan

New Member
That is bananas!

Has anyone seen the book to know where the picture was taken? It would be interesting to find that location next time I go down. I'm going to have to stop by Borders Books and take a look.
 
R

Ralphlaw

Well-Known Member
GothMickey said:
May be... but, the Orlando Sentinel doesn't say 1970, they say 1970's, so it could have been any time in the 70's. And if the band broke up in 1970, the legal paper work to divide the band assets, sell the music rights, etc.. could take years, which, would mean some time in the 70's... Also, the Poly opened in 1971 I believe, so give a year to her recollection... Seems possible to me...
Click to expand...


Well, I am a huge Beatles fan, I love the Polynesian, and I also happen to be a lawyer. Yes, various separation agreements were probably entered, relating to such divergent subjects as copyrights, royalties, trademarks, future album and movie releases of previous works, etc . . . One of these may have been completed years later, and signed at the Polynesian.

Interestingly, the Beatles for the most part got along quite well after the breakup. The helped out each other on their solo albums, and apparently met up when they happened to be in the same cities. Some of them did not get along with John's wife, Yoko Ono, but that's another story.

Gee, you'd think Disney would name a room after John Lennon, or at least put up a plaque.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
GothMickey said:
May be... but, the Orlando Sentinel doesn't say 1970, they say 1970's, so it could have been any time in the 70's. And if the band broke up in 1970, the legal paper work to divide the band assets, sell the music rights, etc.. could take years, which, would mean some time in the 70's... Also, the Poly opened in 1971 I believe, so give a year to her recollection... Seems possible to me...
Click to expand...
I just googled the OS as an example; dig deeper and you`ll see they broke up April 15th 1970 - no way was this at WDW. 1974, yes. But not 1970.

Nor `71 - the Poly wasn`t ready until September 1971, and wasn`t finished until December of that year.
 
WildcatDen

WildcatDen

Well-Known Member
The British Paper pretty much sums it up that the final documents were signed in 1974. Pretty cool. You would almost hope the Poly would have one of those "On this Spot" plaques.
 
VillanovaBlue

VillanovaBlue

Member
Here's the relevant text from the article...Note the date was 1974, and was after "3 plus years" of legal wrangling, also according to the article...

"John, Julian and I left New York the following day to spend Christmas in Florida. On December 29, 1974, the voluminous documents were brought down to John in Florida by one of Apple's lawyers.
"Take out your camera," he joked to me. Then he called Harold to go over some final points.
When John hung up the phone, he looked wistfully out the window. I could almost see him replaying the entire Beatles experience in his mind.
He finally picked up his pen and, in the unlikely backdrop of the Polynesian Village Hotel at Disney World, ended the greatest rock 'n' roll band in history by simply scrawling John Lennon at the bottom of the page."
 
MiklCraw4d

MiklCraw4d

Member
I was going to chime in but someone beat me to the punch - the Beatles were in fact officially dissolved in December 1974. The date in April 1970 was only when Paul announced he was leaving the band. While this marked the public "breakup" there was still the legal entity of "The Beatles Co." that took four years of litigation to reach its end.

I am a huge Beatles fan and I never knew it was at the Poly. That's amazing. Never knew John had been to WDW at all...
 
Mickey1984

Mickey1984

Active Member
i think we need somebody to start asking questions at the Poly - a plaque surely needs raising for such a masive moment in music history

RIP JOHN LENNON
 
camithepirate

camithepirate

New Member
that is insanely intresting. While I dont think they should really put a plaque up for the occasion, Im surprised Disney hasent talked about this in the past. I mean, this is one of the biggest moments in music history, and to take place at the poly, wow. people need to know!...... Who would have thouht?


hehe. last night my bf was grilling me on Beatles triva. Now I've got a good one on him :p:drevil:
 

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